


A New You?

by NannaSally



Category: Blake's 7
Genre: Gen, Post-Gauda Prime
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-21
Updated: 2019-05-12
Packaged: 2019-06-13 17:48:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15369999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NannaSally/pseuds/NannaSally
Summary: Servalan is at Avon's mercy - what will be his decision for her future?And Blake is dead, yes?An ongoing workTags to be updated as the story unfolds





	1. What Now?

"You set the rules, not me, so it's no good calling on your womanhood or your beauty or my mercy now. These have never dictated your actions, why should they dictate mine?" 

She looked up at him from her position on the floor where he had pushed her. Her pleas had done her no good this time, perhaps it was time for another tactic. 

“Alright Avon, you are right. I have never allowed those womanly instincts of old to have any part in my decision making. And you have never been chivalrous. How strange we even use the words. 

“What could I say or promise to make you change your mind about killing me now?” 

Once he had found her dangerously seductive, had even toyed with the idea of joining forces and taking advantage of all that her lush body, brilliant mind and extensive experience offered. But he had been able to see past the glamour to the reality beyond, the reality of the hardness of her purpose, her intention to use those who could help her ascend the ladder of power and dispose of those who could not. 

Now even that glamour was missing, destroyed by the knowledge of all she had done to deceive him at Terminal and beyond, and yes even before. He could admire her cunning and her brilliance but he no longer found her at all attractive. 

“Well now, it’s interesting that you should ask. There is a small service you could provide. I will let you think about the alternatives and we will talk more later.” He turned and left. 

Servalan let herself smile at that last statement. So it was not over yet, there was hope. And where there was hope she could find a way, she always had before, she would now. 

******************************** 

Avon walked up to the flight deck where the other members of the crew were waiting for him. “I suppose you all heard that interesting conversation” he said, gesturing at the communications console. 

“Yes” agreed Vila, “And her response seemed exactly as you and Orac predicted. Do you think you can get away with it? And do you really think this is the right thing to do?” 

Avon looked at Dayna. “What do you think?” 

“You know I want her dead. She murdered my father. She has tried to kill all of us several times. And from what Orac told me, this way she will be dead but still be useful. Maybe that will be enough.” 

“Agreed. The universe would be a better place without that woman in it.” said Tarrant. “But it is not just us who need convincing you know, it’s not us who will have to live with the result.” 

Avon knew this was true and that he would have to spend some time with Orac talking this through some more before a final decision was made. 

“All of this was because of her. This way at least some of it is undone. We will talk more tomorrow.” 


	2. Now What?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Why is Blake not dead?

“Yes Avon, because of the transfer it has been possible to completely eradicate all indications of conditioning that Blake ever endured. He is now the man he would have been without any interference by the Federation’s interrogators and retains all memories from before his original capture. He also has all memories of everything that has happened since.” 

Avon was not sure if this was a good thing or bad. To remember everything? He was aware that much of what had happened to Blake had included betrayal of friends and loss of family. How would Blake react? 

“Let me talk to him. 

“Blake, how are you feeling now?” 

“Avon? I can hear you but I cannot see you. Where am I?” 

He sounded like a man tightly controlling his panic, which was hardly to be surprised at. It must be a shock to awake to a lack of senses, unable to touch, taste or smell what was going on around him.  

“Blake it is all right. You are going to be all right. Orac and I are going to make sure you are all right. Do you trust me?” 

“Avon? I...yes, I trust you. I have always trusted you, right from the beginning.” A statement. 

“What is the last thing you remember Blake?” 

“I was in the base, we – Deva and I – had a couple of possible new recruits. He did not like my methods, rather pointedly. Yes. I remember. Tarrant. He is one of yours isn’t he? Is he all right? I found him in the remains of a ship.” 

“Yes Blake, Tarrant is fine. What happened next.” 

“The girl, Arlen, I was not so sure of her. She said some strange things, but she seemed worth checking out. She seemed a bit trigger happy. We let Tarrant go, I could always catch up with him later. Klyn alerted us to a flyer – that was you?” 

“Yes, that was me. And Vila, and Dayna and Soolin, you don’t know them.” 

“Yes, I remember you were with two women, quite the contrast aren’t they?” 

“Yes we can talk about them later. What do remember next?” 

“Avon, I tried to talk to you... Avon YOU SHOT ME!!!” appalled. 

“Yes Blake, I shot you.” 

“You shot me. I fell. I guess that is it, no more memories until now... 

“Avon YOU SHOT ME. YOU SHOT ME THREE TIMES!!!” 

“Yes Blake, I shot you.” A bald statement of fact. No emotion, not yet. 

Silence other than Orac’s ongoing hum. 

“So Avon, why am I not dead?” 

“Well now...” 


	3. Imrpinting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> WARNING WARNING FLASHBACK AHEAD PROCEED AT OWN RISK

Beyond grief and an unnerving lack of privacy, one of the more annoying parts of prison was a lack of contact with his former academic world. Avon had been used to keeping abreast of all the latest papers published in the journals even after he was no longer the most published himself. He had once held ambitions in that world, but had become disillusioned when the latest changes in the Federation politics meant that policy drove science and research and with it promotion more than merit and ability did. So he turned his attention to other, more tangible goals.

He managed a trade with the Section Leader of the Holding Prison for an electronic paper with 5 years outdated journals uploaded to its storage matrix. The page folded neatly into his pocket and gave him something to focus on when he needed to drown out the fussing of his fellow prisoners. 

Acquiring the Liberator and more importantly Zen had in many ways liberated him as well. Avon had new avenues of technology to explore and discover and learn. And much of it very different to anything he had seen before.  The Federation, while quite efficient, were not particularly innovative as demonstrated with the antiquated setup on the London and he revelled in the beauty and inventiveness of minds not curtailed by politically expedient boundaries.

Zen was set the task of gleaning whatever documents were available from the libraries of the systems they passed through and he was able to download a number of useful files from XK 72 before it was destroyed.

After the near disaster during the rescue of Avalon, Avon had made sure to become up to date on current Federation Science regarding Artificial Intelligence and androids. This had been a specialty subject during his university years but had not really caught his attention the way the more esoteric programming of the digital tools of the systems of government. It was amazing to him how people could be convinced of the validity of just about anything if a computer told them it was true. So other than the basics covered by all his fellow students he had not pursued the subject of AI much further. His inability to reprogram the Avalon android beyond minor changes made him determined to never be caught that way again  After Orac joined the Liberator it was put to work collating all data regarding the art of AI, a subject which it also found fascinating and was quite prepared to discuss with Avon during the night shifts on the flight deck when no other work required attention.

Avon had found note of the use of brain prints in the process of cloning and some android production. A modification of this process was also used in the imprinting of mutoids. This information he tucked away as interesting but not essential, he much preferred the idea of fully controlled programming rather than the messy result of human ‘programming’.

Later, on Sardos the Moloch computer had copied Tarrant’s brain with the intention of churning out space pilots and again Avon added this information to his files.

So when Blake died, Avon pulled Orac out and insisted it copy Blake’s brain print before it was irrevocably lost.


	4. Choices

“So let me get this clear

“You shot me”

“Yes”

“I was dead”

“Yes”

“And now my body is still dead, but my mind, brain, soul if you like, is sharing space with Orac?”

“Yes”

“I am in a COMPUTER???”

“Yes”

A long silence  follwed , with just the hum of  Orac’s  internal workings.

Avon had never had the need to fill a silence with chat, but even he was beginning to feel uneasy.

“So Blake, what do you want to do now?”

“What choices do I have? I am stuck here in Orac, I can go where he goes.”

“Actually, there are other choices.”

“What kind of choices?”

“Well, we could make you an separate case similar to Orac’s”

“That does not seem like much of a choice”

“We could build you a body”

“An android? I don’t think so”

“There is another one”

“What is that?”

“We grab you another body.”


End file.
